Does Steam share someone else's IP address upon request?

[Hey I'm Back!]

When there are insults, swearing and threats in a game played on Steam, can the IP address of the other person be requested upon request?

[WarHeRo]

Nguyên văn bởi Crashed:

Nguyên văn bởi WarHeRo:

i reported someone claiming to be suicidal to the police department and they managed to track them down and confirm their safety

On Steam? Valve moderators must not be happy with you for causing them a contact from law enforcement. They have to deal with enough subpoenas when someone from the OT community does something tragic.

yes on steam. it was someone from 'new to steam' forum
i learned not to take people from OT serious after getting over 1k death threats

[Doctor Zalgo]

Nguyên văn bởi Crashed:

Nguyên văn bởi WarHeRo:

i reported someone claiming to be suicidal to the police department and they managed to track them down and confirm their safety

On Steam? Valve moderators must not be happy with you for causing them a contact from law enforcement. They have to deal with enough subpoenas when someone from the OT community does something tragic.

The steam legal team would deal with these sorts of things not moderators. Unless you're just handing out information to cops whenever they ask, there's a whole bunch of nuance (e.g. the requesting country is only the start). Moderators are incredibly unqualified for this sort of thing.

[Reported.]

Nguyên văn bởi Crazy Tiger:

Nguyên văn bởi Hey I'm Back!:

Even if requested by legal authorities?

Ask the authorities.

They won't confirm or deny. National security.

[Spanky]

Nguyên văn bởi Hey I'm Back!:

When there are insults, swearing and threats in a game played on Steam, can the IP address of the other person be requested upon request?

not likely anyone is allowed to obtain details about a user connecting. Not even a lawyer gets access with out a court order. And if they did without consent or knowledge shared to the targeted user it was leaked without consent. probably released by a staff member who organised protections for certain people they want, and ignoring rights and freedoms of others.

[Boblin the Goblin]

Nguyên văn bởi WarHeRo:

Nguyên văn bởi Crashed:

On Steam? Valve moderators must not be happy with you for causing them a contact from law enforcement. They have to deal with enough subpoenas when someone from the OT community does something tragic.

yes on steam. it was someone from 'new to steam' forum
i learned not to take people from OT serious after getting over 1k death threats

None of that is true.

[Crazy Tiger]

Nguyên văn bởi Spion:

Nguyên văn bởi Crazy Tiger:

Ask the authorities.

They won't confirm or deny. National security.

Doesn't matter, best place for them to get a definitive answer.

[Animus]

TLDR: On a user level? No. Steam won't and has zero obligation to comply.

With actual verified authorities, it's plausible provided they have a warrant demanding the information.

[ShelLuser]

Nguyên văn bởi Wolfpig:

Your isp is usually saving the data which customer got which ip at which point, which then can be asked to give out by law enforcemt (if they get the permission by a judge in most case).

Same can happen on most VPN services as they save user data too.

Or do you really think that those things would be anonym?

Yes, because of the IPv4 shortage many (if not most) ISP's are using dynamic IP addresses. Meaning that... turn off your router, wait 10 minutes, turn it back on... tadaa! you got a different IP.

And as a bonus this is also a solid defense against DoS attacks.

Do you really believe that ISP's are going to keep track of all that? At the very most the bare minimum: the link between an IP and the so called MAC address (aka hardware address). See, here's another problem: MAC addresses can be spoofed as well, and this mechanic is more than often also provided by hardware that is provided by an ISP.

So even that isn't a full proof means.

Finally... there's this thing called the law ;) Which normally states that you're innocent until proven guilty.

But to get back to what this thread was addressing... sharing an IP address means absolutely nothing.

[WarHeRo]

Nguyên văn bởi Boblin the Goblin:

Nguyên văn bởi WarHeRo:

yes on steam. it was someone from 'new to steam' forum
i learned not to take people from OT serious after getting over 1k death threats

None of that is true.

Ah, well, ye see, lad, I've shared them police reports with me pals on that Steam thing more times than I can count, I have.
And them that follow me profile, well, they've already seen the threats, plain as day. But, if ye fancy believin' whatever ye please, thats yer right, I spose. Not as if I've got to go provin' meself to the likes of a doubter such as yerself.

[Dr.Shadowds 🐉]

Nguyên văn bởi WarHeRo:

Nguyên văn bởi Boblin the Goblin:

None of that is true.

Ah, well, ye see, lad, I've shared them police reports with me pals on that Steam thing more times than I can count, I have.
And them that follow me profile, well, they've already seen the threats, plain as day. But, if ye fancy believin' whatever ye please, thats yer right, I spose. Not as if I've got to go provin' meself to the likes of a doubter such as yerself.

I see no wrong in cause to help someone for health reasons, it actually acceptable for police to get involved if there proof of suicidal to do a health check visiting their homes.

I also did police report over world of warcraft because of depression someone had, and only thing keeping the guy going is having friends to talk to, and playing wow tough times they were.

[Tezzious]

ISP's keep a log of the IP addresses and which account had that specific IP at the time and dates for a period of 6 months (dependent on which country, some hold shorter or longer). IP addresses are completely public and there is no law stopping you from obtaining said IP, it is what you do with that information that then becomes a problem.

Steam cannot give that info out freely though as they are a business and must adhere to confidentiality rules, unless law enforcement force them to turn over said information.

But obtaining someones IP is fairly easy to do and completely legal, but if you use that IP to attack the person then becomes illegal.

[Boblin the Goblin]

Nguyên văn bởi WarHeRo:

Nguyên văn bởi Boblin the Goblin:

None of that is true.

Ah, well, ye see, lad, I've shared them police reports with me pals on that Steam thing more times than I can count, I have.
And them that follow me profile, well, they've already seen the threats, plain as day. But, if ye fancy believin' whatever ye please, thats yer right, I spose. Not as if I've got to go provin' meself to the likes of a doubter such as yerself.

Knowing history.

It's false.

[Brian9824]

Nguyên văn bởi ShelLuser:

Do you really believe that ISP's are going to keep track of all that?

Yes they do, its basically just Date it was assigned, who it was assigned to, and when it stopped being assigned. it's all automated and stored in database. They have to for legal reasons such as when police need to identify who was using an IP address at a specific time.

[Crashed]

Nguyên văn bởi Brian9824:

Nguyên văn bởi ShelLuser:

Do you really believe that ISP's are going to keep track of all that?

Yes they do, its basically just Date it was assigned, who it was assigned to, and when it stopped being assigned. it's all automated and stored in database. They have to for legal reasons such as when police need to identify who was using an IP address at a specific time.

How do VPN providers get away with not retaining these logs?

[Brian9824]

Nguyên văn bởi Crashed:

Nguyên văn bởi Brian9824:

Yes they do, its basically just Date it was assigned, who it was assigned to, and when it stopped being assigned. it's all automated and stored in database. They have to for legal reasons such as when police need to identify who was using an IP address at a specific time.

How do VPN providers get away with not retaining these logs?

A few ways, many of them operate out of countries whose laws are more lax and don't require logs for one. Secondly a VPN is not an ISP, they are not providing the internet service and thus aren't as well regulated at least in the US and are not held to the same standards as ISP's which are heavily regulated.

There is also connection and usage logs which are different. Connection logs are more common, those are what I described that just link back. Usage logs track sites visited and activity and most VPN's won't have usage logs but many do keep connection logs. It's all based on the legal requirements of where they are located.